Sunday, April 29, 2012

Well, it's the end of the Spring KCWC and unfortunately, I don't have anything exciting to show for the last day. I have to say, I'm kind of burned out and have just been super tired these last few days. (I'm blaming the West coast gloomy weather for this..) But, I did manage to complete everything on my list and even added a pair of sweatpants to boot! Tonight, I am still faithfully putting in my hour's worth of 'sewing/prep' by tracing out some patterns that I have now been re-inspired to sew. The Sailboat Top/Skirt/Pants pattern from Oliver+S has been showing up all over the elsie marly flickr pool and I've finally dug out my copy of the pattern and started tracing. I'm looking forward to sewing these up for lil C, but just not tonight. Tonight I'm going to veg in front of the tv with a nice cup of tea :)

By the way, if you're looking for some sewing inspiration, make sure you check out the flickr pool. So many awesome creations on there! I haven't had a chance to really look through all of them yet, but some of my favourites so far are this, this, this and this. And that's just barely cracking the surface. Seriously, amazing stuff.

My kids have been asking for more pairs of flannel pajama pants for lounging around the house. They actually don't even wear them to sleep, just to play in. Nothing new or fancy here. Just the same pattern as these sweats, but without the modifications. I had the robot flannel fabric in my stash and once big C saw it, he demanded that I make him some comfy pants with it. As for lil C's pants, I have so many lovely AMH flannels in my stash and was hoping I could make her some pants with those. But lil C had found this duck fabric at the fabric shop a while back and immediately fixated on it. I bought it but tucked it away for bit, all the while showing her the AMH fabrics hoping she'll want them for her pj pants. But lil C always remembered the ducks and insisted on that fabric. So here they are.

Ok, so maybe they actually are kind of cute. I think the thing that creeps me out though are the crazy eyebrows on these ducks! (or are they extreme eyelashes?..)

Saturday, April 28, 2012

A few months ago, Shelly and Daniela of Figgy's Patterns/blog hosted a sew-along for this blouse, one of their debut patterns. I was all psyched up to join in but then life got in the way and I didn't end up sewing along. So, the first thing I thought when I signed up for this Spring's KCWC was that I would make this blouse, and I'm so glad I did!

I've used a few of Shelly's patterns before and really do love them. This blouse has such beautiful details like the front bodice top-stitching and the gentle gathers on the yoke. I would actually love to make a blouse like this for myself! (Shelly & Daniela, if, by chance, you're reading this, please make an adult version of this pattern!). Here are the details:

Pattern - Ayashe Blouse from Figgy's Patterns, size 4/5. I made the short sleeve option with the mandarin collar, and left the bottom hem straight without the elastic or drawstring.

General Thoughts - Again, I love how this blouse turned out mostly because of the sweet little details that make it so professional looking. The pattern instructions were good although I did get stuck putting in the yoke facing. I was going on very little sleep that day and was determined to put in my hour of sewing. Luckily, I remembered the sew-along and went to check there for extra tips. Got it all figured out the next day after a good night's sleep (it actually wasn't hard at all, my brain just wasn't working that night). I also made the size 4/5 for my big (just turned) 3 year old, and it fits well with room to grow in the body. However, the neck hole for the 4/5 size was too small and I couldn't get it over my daughter's big beautiful head :). So I just picked out a few stitches more (about an inch) down the front seam and tack stitched the bottom of the opening to secure it. The collar was easy to sew in although I had to adjust the length a bit to fit nicely. The sleeves were also pretty easy to sew in (I usually hate fitting in sleeves), but I still have to figure out how I want to finish those seams (I did french seams for the rest of the blouse but couldn't do that when joining the sleeves. I'm thinking of finishing this with bias tape so the inside of the blouse stays all neat and tidy.)

Overall, I really enjoyed making this blouse and will definitely be making more very soon!

Wednesday, April 25, 2012

Just a pair of sweatpants that were very much needed by my 4 1/2 year old boy. Lately he's been totally into comfy pants (when he was younger he only wanted to wear jeans), and the few pairs we have are about 3 inches and 2 sizes too small. So, I decided to whip up a pair with some fleece from my fabric stash.

I was kind of lazy with these pants and didn't bother finishing any seams. But hey, you can do that with knits, right? I also made these after C went to bed so I wanted to try them on him first before I invested too much time in making them all neat and tidy. Here are the details:

Pattern - New Look 6746 view A pants, size 5. Originally I was going to just copy a pair on sweatpants he already owned, but as I mentioned, the only sweats he had were 2 sizes too small. So I decided to try using this pajama pant pattern I had on hand and just add the ankle elastic and, Voila! Sweatpants!

Fabric - Gray heather fleece from my stash. I know this isn't 100% cotton but I'm not really sure what the blend is. It's suuuper soft and cozy though which I know C will appreciate :) I also added a little Japanese linen twill tape with a cute monkey on it so we can easily tell the front from the back.

General Thoughts - Again, another super easy and quick project. Two pattern pieces and sewn with a knit fabric so no seam finishes. Sewing time was probably just about an hour after the cutting out the fabric pieces. The only thing I'd do different is to add a little extra room in the butt area when folding down and sewing the waistband to make them even more comfy. But, C does seem to love these so I'm calling this a success! Hooray hurrah!

Tuesday, April 24, 2012

I was out at the thrift shop the other day and found a couple of knit tops that just happened to go together perfectly. I wish I had taken a picture of the 'before' tops. They were in great condition but rather lacking in style.. I love how this skirt turned out! I 'd actually wear this if it was adult sized! I was hoping to get a couple of pics on my normally skirt-loving model, but she has deemed today 'sweatpants and pajama day' and has refused to touch this :( Hopefully I'll be able to get some pics later on this week.

Here are the details:

Pattern - The Twirl Skirt by Lil Blue Boo. This is a PDF download so it involved some printing and taping but because there are only 2 pattern pieces, it was super quick

Fabric - The polkadot fabric is 100% cotton, the floral is a cotton/poly blend. Both are from thrifted shirts which were $3.99 each (with enough leftover to make another skirt). The ribbing for the waistband was from a remnant bin (can't remember the cost)

General Thoughts - Wow! This was a super easy, satisfying project. Once I had printed, taped and traced the pattern, the actual fabric cutting and sewing part probably only took about an hour. I've been meaning to make an upcycled knit skirt for a while and was freaked out a bit about sewing with knits so I put it off. For this project I just used my regular sewing machine - a standard stitch for the seams and zig-zag for the attaching the waistband. Easy peasy! Will definitely be making more of these :)

Monday, April 23, 2012

It's back! The Kids Clothes Week Challenge organized by elsie marley! I participated in this challenge once before and it was so much fun I thought I'd do it again. Basically, participants are committed to sewing (or prepping for sewing) for at least one hour a day for 7 days. This time around, I have a more modest list of things I'd like to accomplish (last year I was a feeling rather ambitious but only managed to sew up a few things on my list). So for this year I'm hoping to sew up: